A place for me to speak-out. A chance for my soul to seek...
' Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue, the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half light, I would spread the cloths under your feet;
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams '
- William Butler Yeats

Friday, January 30, 2009

Same Object, Different perceptions!!

When I was in elementary school, I got into a major argument with a boy in my class. I have forgotten what the argument was about, but I have never forgotten the lesson learned that day.

I was convinced that "I" was right and "he" was wrong - and he was just as convinced that "I" was wrong and "he" was right. The teacher decided to teach us a very important lesson. She brought us up to the front of the class and placed him on one side of her desk and me on the other.

In the middle of her desk was a large, round object. I could clearly see that it was black. She asked the boy what color the object was. "White," he answered.

I couldn’t believe he said the object was white, when it was obviously black! Another argument started between my classmate and me, this time about the color of the object.

The teacher told me to go stand where the boy was standing and told him to come stand where I had been. We changed places, and now she asked me what the color of the object was. I had to answer, "White." It was an object with two differently colored sides, and from his viewpoint it was white. Only from my side was it black.

My teacher taught me a very important lesson learned that day: You must stand in the other person’s shoes and look at the situation through their eyes in order to truly understand their perspective.

Similarly in life, there will be many times a situation ,where you think its not good but for others it might be. And sometimes you think this is good but actually it will not be. We tend to make biased decisions just based on one direction with short term gains but we need to think a lot from all perspective. Its better to have short term loss and long term benefits than short term gains and long term misery.

Each time we end up in an argument , what is important to us? To understand the situation by considering other person’s perception also? Or just winning the argument? Now you have to think on your own!!